I haven't had my scanner on much lately so i'm not aware of some of the changes. I know they now have made Cmnd 34 as their brush channel and Cmnd 38 is now used in East county. But just today I heard VNC dispatch units and advised them to use Cmnd 5.. Did they switch their radio plan again?

For Ventura County FD - is 155.055 used to page the individual fire stations? Do the stations verbally acknowledge the dispatch / incident to the dispatcher on 155.055?

Can Ventura County FD dispatchers operate on any of the Tac channels?

What are the 155 Mhz MedNet freqs used for now?

How does Los Padres Natl Forest use their channels? Paging or dispatch on Forest Net? Command to dispatcher messages on the Service net? Can the dispatchers talk on F3 and F4 - probably not since they are mobile only channels IIRC.

Ventura County Fire's channel 1 (155.055) is used for any unit that is available/not assigned to a call. That means units driving around, in station, in bed, etc.... Once a unit is assigned to a call, they are immediately switched to one of the command channels (Channel 8 for the eastern part of the county, Channel 5 for the western county, and channel 2 for brush fires).

The unit is sent their two-tone signal on 155.055 with no pL tone. But, all of the units in the field have a pL tone set on receive to 82.5Hz. The reason is that a unit can be driving around, and since their radio is set with a receive pL tone, they won't have to listen to the tones all day as units get dispatched. That is because the VERBAL part of each dispatched is transmitted with the pL of 85.4, but the initial tones are not.

The units don't verbalize their en route status via radio, unless they are a non-MDC unit. If the unit does acknowledge en route (no MDC, or MDC malfunction), then they do so on their assigned command channel (2,5,8), not on channel 1. Channel 1 is reserved for units not assigned to a call.

The MedNet channels are rarely used. Mostly on drills for MCIs. Most traffic for any call is on the command channel, and then once on scene of significant incidents, the "worker bees" will switch to the assigned tactical channel (Channel 3,6,9) while the incident command personnel keep a radio on command, and another on tactical, so that they can talk to not only the units on scene, but also the dispatchers.

Los Padres: Emergency traffic is dispatched on Forest Net 170.55. They don't use tone out... all units just monitor the radio during the day. Service net 171.55 is used for non-emergency radio traffic, or non-fire/law personnel. It is also used as a backup dispatch channel if the primary forest net is being used heavily for an incident. For example, if there is a big incident in the Monterey District, the Mount Pinos guys won't hear the radio traffic. Dispatch will advise all units not on the incident or in the Monterey District to switch to service net until the incident is concluded. And dispatch does not have access to the tactical channels.

Has the use of Ch2 154.325 R & Ch 5 153.875 R & Ch 8 155.985 R changed? They were listed as East & West / WR & Contingency.

154.415 R apparently has 13 fixed repeater sites and 2 temporary repeaters. What is that freq used for?

The mobile repeater freq is listed as 159.18 / 159.18. Apparently what happens is : a portable radio will be set to TX and RX on 159.18. A mobile radio will be set to some desired channel - and then the mobile extender will be activated. This essentially patches everything to and from 159.18, and the selected channel. Right?

Note - 158.73 R PL 173.8 is the local repeater in the Lockwood Valley for the resident deputys and Patrol 16 to communicate - it is not linked to the Sheriffs Comm Center.

Note - Ventura County Fire mobile (and probably portable) radios have the ability to toggle between direct and repeater comms on Channels 2, 5, and 8.

154.415 is a countywide repeater system, not currently being used, except for major incidents

VCFD Channel 2 is the channel for brush fires..., no longer the east county command channel
VCFD Channel 8 is the east county command channel
VCFD Channel 5 is the west county command channel

Some units have a mobile repeater...they switch their HT onto channel 17, and it is able to then transmit to the engine, which then repeats their signal via the engine's mobile radio as if they were sitting inside the engine transmitting.

158.73 is used as the primary "dispatch" channel for Lockwood Valley... the dispatcher is actually the deputy's spouse at the station on Chico Larson Way in Lockwood Valley. If the deputies want to talk to the dispatcher at SCC in Ventura, they switch to 151.055/154.055. This channel is also used between LPNF units and VCSO, Kern Co FD and VCSO, and AMR Medic 423 from Gorman to communicate with each other on calls in Lockwood Valley and Hungry Valley. SBSO 37A1 from Cuyama and SBCoFD Station 41 also use it when responding to calls in Ventura County's Lockwood/Schiedeck/Ballinger Canyon/Ozena areas.

Progline : Tac channels usually predetermined. For example, If Cmnd 5 is used in West county(Ventura) Dispatch will assign the responding units to that incident on Cmnd 5 and then Tac 6 is used for West county mobile-mobile or HT-HT, ect when onscene. Dispatch does not assign units to Tac channels